California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land of
countless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. Now the Golden
State’s premier historian, Kevin Starr, distills the entire sweep
of California’s history into one splendid volume. From the age of
exploration to the age of Arnold, this is the story of a place at
once quintessentially American and utterly unique.
Arguing that America’s most populous state has always been
blessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing human
diversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery,
innovation, catastrophe, and triumph.
For generations, California’s native peoples basked in the
abundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to human
habitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth
century, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving in
the region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passed
before Spain exerted control over upper California through the
chain of missions that stand to this day.
The discovery of gold in January 1848 changed everything. With
population increasing exponentially as get-rich-quick dreamers
converged from all over the world, California reinvented itself
overnight. Starr deftly traces the successive waves of innovation
and calamity that have broken over the state since then–the
incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons and the
devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of
Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon
Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the
heroic irrigation and transportation projects that have altered the
face of the region; the role of labor, both organized and migrant,
in key industries from agriculture to aerospace.
Kevin Starr has devoted his career to the history of his beloved
state, but he has never lost his sense of wonder over California’s
sheer abundance and peerless variety. This one-volume distillation
of a lifetime’s work gathers together everything that is most
important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest
state.
From the Hardcover edition.
關於作者：
Legendary California historian Kevin Starr is University
Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the gold and silver
medals from the Commonwealth Club of California, he served as the
state librarian of California for the decade spanning 1994 to 2004.
Starr divides his time between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
From the Hardcover edition.
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